Vikas, Manpreet reach semis; secure two more bronze for India

The impressive show of the Indian pugilists continued at the Asian Games as Vikas Krishan and Manpreet Singh assured themselves of bronze medals in the men's ring and Preeti Beniwal scored a dominating win on the debut day of women's boxing in the mega sports event on Sunday.

Relying on his solid defence, Vikas outsmarted Korea's Kim Chol Song 4-2 in the men's 60kg category to make his way into the semifinals.

Manpreet on the other hand just about managed to beat his Chinese rival Maimaiti Zaifula 6-4 in the men's 91kg quarter-final bout.

Early in the day, Preeti gave India a rousing start in women's boxing by advancing to the 60kg quarter-finals with a thumping 8-2 win over Mongolia's Erdene Suvd Oyungerel.

Vikas, who took the ring first in the evening session, fought with impressive gameplan and did not concede points till the third and final round.

The 18-year-old Youth Olympics bronze medallist kept his guard up and used his straight punches quite effectively.

He took a slender 1-0 after round one and made it 3-0 after the end of second round.

Anticipating defeat, the Korean went on offensive in the last round and managed to land two punches on the Indian. But Vikas was alert enough to not let his lead go and scored one more point to finally win 4-2.

Manpreet, a former national champion, on the other hand did not have complete control over his bout but three crucial punches in the second round helped his cause a lot.

The burly 21-year-old had created a 5-2 lead by the end of round two but went out of energy in the final round. Zaifula, egged on by the crowd, fought aggressively and came out with some lightening fast punches and reduced the lead with two scoring punches. The Indian though scored another point to make it 6-4 and held the lead to come out victorious.